Fourteen days from today Red Dead Redemption will release. In my recent memory I can't remember a game that I was more excited for than RDR. Sure there have been recent games that I have been interested in and greatly enjoyed playing upon release. Good examples would be Bioshock 2, Modern Warfare 2 and Mass Effect 2. But with all of those games I did my typical pre-release investigation; read a couple of previews watch a video or two and look at some screenshots. Not so with Red Dead Redemption.

We should probably go back to the root of this story to get to the heart of my fascination with this game. It all began, as many stories do, with my childhood. Since I was a boy I had a deep interest in Westerns. Some of the best memories of my youth were of watching Clint Eastwood drop a guy in the middle of a deserted town with a nicely placed bullet from his six-shooter. The Western movie is great for a kid because of the easily digestible stereotypes. You have the good guys and you have the bad guys and it's easy to root for good guys because you know who they are. My all time favorite western is "The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly". No problem there figuring out who was who. They tell you in the opening credits. As I got older I saw the quality of the Western movie go down greatly so I have stuck with the classics. Also as I aged I started to enjoy video games more and more and watch fewer movies.

My year of transition coincided with the original Xbox's release in 2001. That was when I stopped playing PC games, cut back on my movie watching and dedicated myself as a console gamer. But I always felt something was missing. Fast forward to 2004 when somewhat out of the blue Rockstar Games released Red Dead Revolver. That's what was missing; A good western game. Combine two of my favorite things; Western Movies and Video Games. While I have favorable memories of playing Red Dead Revolver, I continued to feel like they could do so much more with this genre. So I waited, hoping that Rockstar would go back and make a sequel. A little over a year later I was surprised when I found out that Activision was releasing their own western called GUN. GUN was more "open" and a little less structured than the very linear Red Dead Revolver was. It was also not done as well but my mind immediately thought of Grand Theft Horse. Mash-up the great gameplay of Red Dead Revolver with an open world similar to Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto series and now we're talking!

The same year GUN was released there was a tech demo from Rockstar that came out for the forthcoming Playstation 3 that obviously was a follow up to Red Dead Revolver. I was hooked. I searched and scoured every corner of the internet to find out where development was on this un-announced title and when it would be coming out. Of course in typical Rockstar fashion the tech demo was a tease. There was a complete blackout of information from that tease in 2005 until sometime early in 2009. Finally the light was back on and my focus lasered in on what Rockstar San Diego was working on.

That pretty much brings us to today. Two weeks from today Rockstar is set to release it's follow up to a game that, I believe, went largely unnoticed in 2004. I have spent hour's online watching video, reading forums, reading press previews and finding any information I can about Red Dead Redemption. Lately Rockstar has been putting out fairly regular content and the press has had several opportunities to get hands on with the game. I have liked what I have heard. You can follow the links at the bottom of this article to read the professionally written comments. To summarize all that I have read and seen, the game seems to be just what I envisioned 5 years ago when I played GUN; Grand Theft Horse. It was developed with the same engine as the last GTA game ran on (called RAGE) so it has the same technical quirks as that game, that are also typical of any open world game; small framerate issues, draw distance/pop-up problems, clipping here and there. The great things I have heard far outweigh the negative; free-roam multiplayer, immersive world, stunning graphics. The biggest hurdle this game has to overcome is its setting. While the average age of a gamer has risen as we (the "core" gamer) get older there are still lots of hardcore gamers in their twenties or younger that have no appreciation for the American Western. And while I respect every ones right to their own opinion, I don't want this game and this genre to fail just because the subject matter may not appeal to the hooker killing, halo jumping youngsters. The American west is an important part in the United States history and I believe is a perfect playground for a open world sandbox game. Now I am not some crotchety old man telling you to stay off my lawn or rather in this case stay on my lawn but I beg you not to overlook it. Even if you have no interest in this game, when it's released, pick one of your favorite game websites and read their review. Information on the web suggests that unless this game sells 5 million copies it won't make any money. Rockstar San Diego has put a lot of time and effort into this game over the last 5 or 6 years. If you give this game a chance, it may just surprise you. I am hoping that it blows me away.

Red Dead Redemption will be released on May 18th in North America and May 21st in Europe.

Associated web links:

• Official Website
• The Guardian UK preview
• Wikipedia Page